Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Sony A7 and A7r - Game Changing Cameras?

Sony today unveiled the leaked, and much anticipated full frame cameras in a small mirrorless body. Reactions have been mostly positive around the net, myself included. This is the camera I have been waiting for a long time. Small, full frame, and most importantly, with a mount that has short flange distance which will take pretty much all kinds of lenses. I think Sony has a winner here, especially when it's priced below its main rivals, the Nikon D610 and Canon 6D, but I think Leica has the most to worry about. For me, it's a Canon full frame replacement.

The EOS to NEX smart adapters is on its second generation and fully supports the EF lenses: AF and IS. Yes it's a bit slower but to me it's not a deal breaker. With the A7's phase-detect capabilities, it will only be a matter of time before the AF speed and accuracy will improve for the Canon EF lenses. In the mean time, I can get rid of my 5D Mark II, which I like, but not as often used as I had hoped; I tend to grab the NEX-6 on the way out because my backpack is often very heavy with a laptop, bike lock, lunch, etc., and with the 5D II thrown in, it becomes too much. I am eagerly waiting for the A7's arrival on November. I don't much care about the A7r's higher resolution. 24 MP is more than enough for me and A7's better image quality is icing on the cake.

The only thing I wish the A7 would have, is in-body stabilization, preferably with the capability of Olympus' EM-1, but it's a minor issue for me.

One thing I think Sony is making a mistake is Zeiss branded lens prices. I know they are quality lenses, but $1000 for a 50mm f1.8?  That's ridiculous, unless the lens barrel is made of 24K gold. I hope the NEX 50mm f1.8 OSS won't vignette severely. How much better will the Zeiss version be, over the NEX version, besides the fact that it covers full frame? The pricing will put off many people who want to use the A7/A7r with AF lenses.  Sony should make at least one inexpensive, but good prime lens, like the NEX 50mm f1.8 OSS at introduction. But again, it's a minor issue for me as I will be using this camera with mostly manual focus lenses.

Good job, Sony. Your competition should be worried.

Lone man & bird - Canon 5D Mark II & Olympus OM 35mm f2.

12 comments:

  1. indeed ... I'm wondering which bits to sell to buy it ;-)

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    1. I never pre-order anything. Need to read the reviews and handle it first.

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  3. Yu-Lin, on the lens pricing the 55/1.8 in preliminary testing has superior wide-aperture performance to pretty much every other normal on the market today except the Zeiss Otus 55/1.4. It's designed to be outstanding on 36MP, something that few other normals can say. Same goes for the 35/2.8, which looks to be one of the best 35's on the market.

    There is one of the new lenses which is wildly overpriced though, and that is the 70-200 f4 G, $3K for a lens which should cost around $1500.

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    1. Adam, perhaps I was a bit hasty on my conclusions about the pricing of the new lenses, but I still think that Sony should at least have one high speed prime that's reasonably priced, such as the 50mm f1.8 OSS for NEX.

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  4. Have you read the disastrous report on M-Lenses on the A7?
    Either the A7R is better due to microlens differences (i don't know) or it is a lot of money for a camera hardly improving on the Nex series. Kind of reminds me of the Nex 7 wideangle problems.
    The A7R on the other hand lacks first curtain shutter, making it rather loud.
    Both the lack of lenses and affordable lenses on top maks the pricing of the A7s a little tough for me.

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    1. I did follow some of the reviews and it's too bad the results aren't better. I kind of expected this to happen when the lens registration is so short. Part of the reason why I never pre-order anything. I think the A7 does not first curtain shutter and thus a bit louder. The 7r's lack of a AA filter (but still there is the IR and RGB filter in front of the sensor) and off-set microlenses will hopefully be a bit better. Wait and see.

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  5. Just checked, and the majority of the web sites says that the A/ has first curtain, the A7R doesn't.
    http://photographylife.com/sony-a7-vs-a7r

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  6. Beautiful shot there in B/W. And yes, the new Sony's are very interesting and look like extremely capable. We live in interesting times to be a photographer!

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    1. Indeed! Looks like A7r will be a better choice or manual lenses.

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